Films by Ceylan, Lanners and Mihaileanu up against Untouchable

02/11/2011

Three films unveiled at Cannes and acclaimed by critics are hitting French theatres today and will try to find their audience up against this autumn’s heralded smash hit: Untouchable [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (see review). Launched by Gaumont on a print-run of almost 600, directorial duo Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache’s latest feature (pictured) has already pulled off the feat, for a comedy, of garnering unanimous approval from the film trade press and general-interest media, who are all full of praise for the film’s two lead actors (François Cluzet and Omar Sy), as well as its humour, emotion and socio-cultural interest.

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The trio of films from the Croisette are not lacking in appeal for film enthusiasts either, with Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s masterful Cannes Grand Prize-winner Once Upon a Time in Anatolia [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (see review and interview - Memento Films Distribution in 38 cinemas); Belgian helmer Bouli Lanners’s original and sensitive The Giants [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
interview: Bouli Lanners
film profile] (highlight of the Directors’ Fortnight - Haut et Court in 74 theatres); and Radu Mihaileanu’s idealistic The Source [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (unveiled in competition – see review – EuropaCorp Distribution in 341 cinemas).

This Wednesday, Chinese director Lou Ye’s French production Love and Bruises [+see also:
trailer
interview: Lou Ye
film profile] (see video interview from Venice Days) is also being released in 33 theatres through Wild Bunch Distribution. Meanwhile, Kannibal Films is releasing a five-print run of Cornel Gheorghita’s Romanian/French co-production Europolis [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and StudioCanal is launching Stéphane Rybojad’s Special Forces [+see also:
trailer
film profile] in 240 cinemas.

At the box office dominated by The Adventures of Tintin (2.2m admissions in five days), Maïwenn’s Poliss [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Maïwenn
film profile] continues to win over cinema-goers (1.1m viewers in 12 days on 487 prints), while Pierre Schoeller’s The Minister [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pierre Schoeller
film profile] has got off to a better start (112,000 admissions in five days on 154 prints) than directorial duo Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud’s Chicken with Plums [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (82,000 viewers on 198 prints).